The Detroit Pistons are trying to take baby steps towards being competitive with a revamped cast around their young core.
The youngsters will be under pressure to improve this season, as they finally have veteran competition and a coach and team president who aren’t just going to hand them minutes.
Trajan Langdon will use this season for evaluation and development (sound familiar?) and then decide which players to keep and which to trade away. He’s set the Pistons up to have a clean cap sheet in two seasons, which is the timeline for when Detroit should hopefully at least be competitive.
Langdon needs to find his “Big 3,” and at this point, we are not sure if all three of them are even on the roster. Most believe you need at least three all-star level players to compete in the NBA and the best teams have that.
Teams like Boston, Denver, Philly, Milwaukee, Minnesota and OKC all have at least three quality to players to build around and in some cases, several more.
But what about the other side? The Pistons aren’t even close to having three elite players, but how do they rank against the other worst trios in the NBA? Here are the five worst Big 3’s in the league, going from best to worst.
#5: Portland Trail Blazers
-Jerami Grant
-Anfernee Simons
-Deandre Ayton
This isn’t the Big 3 the Trail Blazers will be building around and it wouldn’t be surprising if all three of these guys were on different teams by the trade deadline, but Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan have not yet usurped their veteran counterparts.
Given the young players mentioned above and the assets Portland will likely get from trading all of their veterans this season, they will have a nice starting point for a rebuild, but right now they still have veterans in the primes of their careers.
You would not be excited if these were your three best players and you were trying to win, but if you are kicking off a rebuild, this isn’t a terrible group, though their contracts might not be easy to flip.